Dec. 10, 2020 is the 72nd Anniversary of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights.
A few days earlier the US daily COVID 19 deaths exceeded 3000 for the first time in this pandemic. That’s more lives than we lost on 9-11…and this Covid19 record is likely to be broken again. Some believe this disease is “nature’s revenge”. It's more of a lesson about the need to protect human rights.
Viruses have always been our greatest threat. Deaths and illness from most viruses are preventable. But only if humans follow fundamental principles that we know work. Clean water and safe sanitation alone would eliminate half of the world’s infectious diseases. Eating healthy and literally being in touch with nature helps boosts the immune system. Last and just as important, we must treat others as we want to be treated - as every major religion wisely suggests. Christianity’s “Good Samaritan” parable and it’s plea for brotherhood of all religions was recently reiterated by Pope Francis in his latest Encyclical. The world walking that talk would do much to prevent most of the violence in the world…wars, genocide, and violent extremism…along with the greatest tragedy known to humanity – the loss of one's child. An equally important threat to man is genetically targeted bioweapons.
We must have faith in science as well as the fundamental principle of the golden rule. Yesterday was the 42nd anniversary of the global eradication of smallpox, arguably the greatest of all human achievements. The smallpox virus took more lives in the first 70 years of the last century than all the wars, revolutions, genocides and homicides COMBINED in all the 100 years of that same century. Science provided that vaccine. Fraternity among humans (what the Pope is now calling for) opened the pathway for that vaccines delivery to every nation and village of the world. We will need both again to defeat SARSCoV2.
Vaccines sometimes cause problems…but nothing as great as mistrusting them. Or ignoring the value of “self-evident” “Truths” that we are all endowed with fundamental rights…and among these are the right to “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. These rights must be codified into human law. I recently learned that Benjamin Rush, a doctor and one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, was also close friends with Thomas Jefferson, that documents primary author. Rush tried to convince Jefferson to use the word “health” in place of “Happiness”. It should be no mystery why “One Health” is now the catch phrase to inform misinformed people that everything is connected. Due to our continued disregard for nature and the poor, our exposure to others by the hyper speed of wealthy travelers or the treacherous paths of migrants due to war or climate related disasters is accelerating. Walls and even the most powerful militaries in the world will not stop nature’s forces or the collective acts of billions of desperate people from invading every aspect of our lives -- and increasingly threatening both our freedoms and security.
Much of this could have been prevented had the UDHR been codified into a truly United Nations system.
And had the UN been given the resources and the power to actually enforce
such a holistic list of inalienable human rights, instead of the rights of
nations to do as they damn well please, the world would be far safer, freer, and more prosperous than ever. The Pope recognized humanities
need to globally adopt the “rule of law” and abandon the “law of force” that
our nations and political leaders now worship. That will take a movement of movements inspiring "We the people" of the world to convince policy makers that the supremacy of nationalism in the world is killing us, destroying the environment along with any chance of a livable and sustainable future for generations to come.
Enforcing UDHR obviously didn’t happen and it won’t happen
anytime soon. But there is an achievable and affordable alternative. Adequately fund the globally approved United Nation’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals - and achieve
them by (or before) 2030.
Covid19 has made achieving those goals much more
difficult. But not impossible. And funding them remains the greatest barrier
given the economic demands now burdening every nation and nearly every human. But “We the people” control the single
factor that can change that. Our God
given sovereign power to create “political will” as world citizens. The political will to first freeze and then seize some (or most) of the $32 trillion (according to 2012 study) that has been stashed
in offshore accounts. These are mostly illicit
financial resources hoarded away by kleptocrats, oligarchs, criminal cartels, violent
extremist groups and wealthy capitalists avoiding taxes. Resources that rightfully should have been funding the protection of human rights.
Election outcomes are not the answer. Even the best election outcomes in each nation
will NOT change the trajectory of unsustainable problems. Good laws can be
blocked by uninspired or corrupted politicians.
They will also take refuge behind the flawed concept of national sovereignty. A man made concept now over 400 years old which was once essentially
a feudal system. But today that flawed system is incapable of protecting any nation’s security or
their people’s basic freedoms.
The virus is evidence of that. Enough said.
A mountain of irrefutable evidence won’t change someone’s mind. That is because our minds are infected with cognitive dissidence and conspiracy
theory memes.
On this very special day be thankful for your rights. All of our inalienable rights. These rights and your security are increasingly
at risk because ‘we the people’ have become dependent and unquestioning regarding the flawed political concept of independence. It is nothing more than a mental construct that exists only in our minds and on paper. It is found nowhere in the known universe…
We are free to believe anything we want.
And we do! But we will never be
free of the consequences.
This is a fundamental principle that we must now act on. Reality cares not what you think or believe. It is only what we collectively do that
matters. And time is running out.
Words like Liberty and Justice for all, should mean something. Words should mean something specific.
A new scientific study warns that the “Tension between awareness and fatigue shapes COVID-19 Spread”. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/12/201208111438.htm
This report errs in using the wrong word in
framing our reality. It is not our “fatigue”
that is shaping the outcome of this viral spread. It is the fatigue of health workers, supply chain
delivery people, and those engineering and producing safe vaccines. The rest of us are mostly bored in our homes,
on Zoom calls, or using social media to spread conspiracy theories or other
memes (metal obelisk in the Arizona desert) that distract us from being aware of reality. Or just distracted by video
games, Netflix binging (I’m guilty), and social media wars where words can mean anything and defend anyone's ‘truth’ or sacred belief.
But, words and phrases must mean something specific to be useful. Inalienable Rights! Right to life! Right to Liberty! Right to happiness (unlikely if
unhealthy). But “Peace through strength?”,
“Capitalism or market forces will solve the problem?”, “Tweaking democracy will make the difference.”
Our imagination and creativity are literally
killing us. And with the evolution of
weaponry and war…our time is short. Until we engineer our global political system
using words and phrases that mean something sane and that people mostly agree on -
just as those who engineer space craft, vaccines, and global communication devises
do -- this current acceleration of chaos,
suffering and deaths will continue.
Action is needed now on what we know to be “self-evident” “Truths”. Not more discussion, debate, or experiments.
We've always known what to do. We just resist doing it. Mostly due to flawed concepts.
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